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114 Chapter 11: Space Warps and Particle Systems
change the Speed and Direction settings. When
you change a setting, the change is reflected
in the viewports in real time, even during
playback.
Try right-clicking act ions and events and using
Rename to give them custom names. Even with
a custom name, an ac tion’s tooltip reveals its
type.
Another facility of t he right-click menu is to
add comments to actions and events. Once
you do so, a small red triangle indicates the
comment’s pr esence.
Congratulations! You now have a working
knowledgeofParticleFlow.Ifyou’dliketotry
some more tutorials, go to t
he Particle Flow
tutorials.
Par ticle Flow FAQ
This topic offers answers to a number of questions
users commonly ask w hen first learning to use
Particle Flow. The first section contains links to all
the questions, and the subsequent sections contain
the questions and answers organized by category.
Question L ist
How does Part icle Flow handle t ime? (page 2–115)
WhenIgotoadifferentframe,thesoftware
sometimes seems to freeze for a while. What’s
going on? (p age 2–115)
Is there a way to pre-calculate portions of a particle
simulation, as in "baking" the animation? (page
2–116)
What else can I do to optimize performance?
(page 2–116)
HowdoIuseParticleFlowtomakeanobject
explode? (p age 2–116)
How can I control the accuracy of the Particle Flow
simulation? (page 2–116)
Can I use MAXScript to affect particles? (page
2–116)
CanIusemorethanoneobjectasinstanced
geometry? (page 2–117)
How can I exclude particles from certain light
sources? (page 2–117)
How do I open Particle View without clicking
Particle View button on the command panel?
(page 2–117)
Do I need multiple Particle Views to manage more
than one particle system? (page 2–117)
Can I selectively disable or "turn off " portions of
a part icle system? (page 2–117)
I sometimes see events named “Action Recovery”
in Particle View. Where did they come from?
(page 2–117)
How do I animate act ion parameters? (page
2–117)
How can I synchronize an animated bitmap
texture to par ticle age? (page 2–117)
Do I still need to bind my Particle Flow particles to
space warps? (page 2–117)
How do I make particles follow a path? (page
2–118)
Can I use Snapshot or dynamics with Part icle
Flow? (page 2–118)
HowdoIusemotionblurwithParticleFlow?
(page 2–118)
HowdoIusetheParticleAgeandParticleMBlur
maps with Par ticle Flow? (page 2–118)
I’m trying to apply Particle Flow to an animation
created with a dynamics system. Why am I getting
strange results such as unexpected spawning of
particles? (page 2–118)